Is the Bill Richardson comeback heading our way?

RICHARDSON: What next for 'Guillermo'?

To listen to the rumor-mill these days, soon-to-be former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is headed back to Washington.

Some people seem to think that President Barack Obama’s gesture to the Latino voter block when he runs for re-election in 2012 will be to dump Vice President Joe Biden and replace him with the Mexican/Irish-American official who actually lived during his childhood in Mexico City (albeit among the expatriate community in the capital city).

OTHERS ARE PEDDLING the notion that Hillary R. Clinton is on her way out as Secretary of State, which would mean Richardson would get the political post that many people thought he was going to get two years ago.

I’m not sure what fate is in store for Richardson. Although I can’t help but think that his involvement in negotiating a key agreement with North Korea has much to do with reminding us of the existence of this official who on paper was the best qualified candidate who ran for president in 2008.

Unfortunately for him, campaigns are rarely won on paper, and Richardson’s political persona had all the fiery temperament of mayonnaise.

So he didn’t get elected president. Nor did he get a choice cabinet post because of the allegations that arose about improper business dealings by the New Mexico governor’s office.

BUT THAT INVESTIGATION wound up finding nothing improper done by Richardson. So when one considers that he’s about to leave the New Mexico governor’s post (term limits, he didn’t lose a re-election bid), we have to wonder if the timing is right for the Richardson comeback.

I doubt that Richardson wants to remain in Santa Fe and be an “elder statesman” of New Mexico state politics.

This is, after all, a former congressman, secretary of Energy and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The man has skills that could be put to use in an Obama administration, and could be part of what props him up, even though we’d have to deal with some wags who would want to make an issue over whether or not he was ever a professional baseball prospect for the old Kansas City Athletics.

He wasn’t.

BUT THAT MIGHT be the biggest blotch on his record (unless you’re so intensely partisan that the “D” associated with his name is blotch enough).

So where is Richardson headed?

I think the whole “vice president” tale is too far-fetched, even though there was a time when I thought Obama would have been sensible to make Richardson his running mate during the 2008 election cycle.

I just happen to think that the emphasis would be less on Richardson coming on board, and more on Biden being given the boot.  That kind of “stink” would be more trouble than any benefits from having Latino Richardson on the ballot would be worth.

I’M ALSO NOT sure I believe the rumor-mill that has Hillary stepping down from her very high-profile post. Not that I would expect her to remain for all eight years of an Obama administration (just trying to infuriate the conservative ideologues who are reading this).

But I don’t believe the people who think she would try to run for president in ’12. Nor do I think she really wants to spend that much more time with esposo Bill.

Although if she were looking to move up, now would be the time to consider it. The Gallup Organization came out with a new poll showing Clinton to be the Most Admired woman of 2010. Then again, the poll has Obama as the Most Admired male.

So all that such a move by Hillary would do would be to reopen the ’08 Democratic primary wounds among people who currently are united by their detestation of the concept of Sarah Palin as any kind of public official.

THE BOTTOM LINE? I don’t know what is going to happen to Richardson once he is no longer a governor as of Saturday. Only that I won’t be surprised to see him continue to pop up again in public.

Some people just have too much to offer to be kept down and out in anonymity.

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